Magnet-Adorned Binder Clips Keep Cables in Easy Reach

Binder clips, with their everlasting grip and flawless design, have found a spot as the most universal device in any home office—dethroning the =kegerator-meets-gaming-system. But with a little modification and some help from our friends, some trusty and powerful magnets, binder clips can do even more.

Have you ever unplugged your laptop from its home at your desk, only to return from the corner Starbucks and find that your peripheral cords—the ones to your printer, the power cord and your desktop speakers—have fallen between the desk and the wall?

Lifehacker reader and commenter gkrieshok comes to the rescue of over-reached techies everywhere with a tip to use binder clips to corral your cords to the edge of the desk.

We already know binder clips can help out here if you use them like the photo in this post and loop your cords through a few clipped to the edge of the desk. But if you need to take the cords with you occasionally—like if "battery life" is no longer in your MacBook-toting vocabulary and you're lugging a power cord with you almost everywhere—gkrieshok's magnet version can save you time and stress.

Just use electrical tape to attach a strong magnet to the edge of each binder clip. Metal-ended cords, like those on most USB's and power cords, will hang tight when you want to leave them dangling from the edge of the desk.

Of course, when you're dealing with magnets in the same space as your computer's hard drive, you need to be careful to keep them from wiping out your hard drive. But unless you're trying to do damage, you'll be safe keeping your laptop several inches from your newly organized cable collection.